Brain research may help explain mass violence

September 26, 2013|By Khalique Ahmed, Guest columnist

While the tragic memories of last year's mass shootings in an Aurora, Colo., movie theater and Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., are still fresh in our minds, another mass shooting at Washington Navy Yard has brought a tsunami of grief throughout the U.S.

As intelligent, conscious beings, we have started to explore the root causes of this tragedy of enormous size. According to the initial reports, the shooter had reported hearing voices and had serious mental problems.

The one question among many that is being asked is what we need to do to avoid such tragedies in the future. The major part of the answer to this question is that we need to improve our understanding of the relationship of brain dysfunction with violent behavior.

The 1994 landmark book "The Astonishing Hypothesis" by Francis Crick, Nobel laureate and discoverer of the structure of DNA, forms the basis of modern scientific studies of the human consciousness and mental health, and deviations from it.

According to Crick, a person's mental activities are due to the behavior of an estimated 100 billion cells in the human brain. The intricate workings of these cells give rise to our thoughts, feelings, emotions, actions and behavior.

The human brain is the most astonishing and complex structure. In its healthy form, it can create amazing art and music; discover the nature of things; develop theories about matter, energy, space and time; and innovate the technologies to probe the planets and distant galaxies.

In its optimal form, the brain can possess the empathy and compassion of Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa and Gandhi, but in its dysfunctional form, the human brain can create monsters capable of carrying out the tragedies of the Washington Navy Yard, Sandy Hook Elementary School and Aurora's movie theater. To avoid such tragedies, there is an urgent need to accelerate the research toward understanding the cause and effect relationships between brain dysfunction and violence.

There is a general consensus among scientists that human behavior is determined by the interplay of the genetic and environmental influences that govern brain structure and function. Because the source of violence appears to be faulty operations of the brain structure, the study of brain dysfunction is important to tackle the urgent problem of mass violence.

We have some preliminary knowledge about the correlations between brain dysfunction and violent behavior, but there are still many gaps in our knowledge. There is some scientific evidence that implicates brain lesions in violent behavior, but on the contrary, most individuals with brain damage do not commit violent acts.

Some studies suggest that traumatic brain injury, epilepsy, psychosis, dementia and sleep disorders are some causes of excessive violence, but these studies do not lead us to make firm predictions about the violent tendencies of the sufferers.

The cause of violence is multidimensional and will require a multipronged approach for clear understanding. The three areas of research that may lead us in pinpointing the underlying causes of violence are genetics, neuroanatomy and neurochemistry.

Although no single gene has been attributed to violent behavior, there is initial evidence that multiple genes may interact to predispose individuals to violent behavior. There is also a need for exploring the neuroanatomy as a result of brain injury to find associations between the structural brain damage and the expressions of violence. In the area of neurochemistry, the studies of the role of testosterone and the alteration of brain chemicals (neurotransmitters) may shed light on violent behavior.

On April 2, President Obama announced $100 million in funding for brain research to help find new ways to treat, cure and prevent brain disorders. Considering there are thousands of research-focused universities, colleges and other institutions in the United States, more funds should to be allocated for brain research geared toward the understanding the urgent issue of mass violence in our society.

Khalique Ahmed is a professor and chair of the Division of Natural & Applied Sciences at Lynn University in Boca Raton.